Comments on: Bacon Versus Bohm http://www.arsmathematica.net/archives/2006/12/17/bacon-versus-bohm/ Dedicated to the mathematical arts. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:43:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Joseph Bruno http://www.arsmathematica.net/archives/2006/12/17/bacon-versus-bohm/#comment-40990 Joseph Bruno Thu, 31 May 2007 22:55:23 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/archives/2006/12/18/bacon-versus-bohm/#comment-40990 In particular, the existence of a Bohm interpretation - however ugly, cumbersome, dislikeable, undesirable it may be - surely implies that quantum mechanics is not *inherently* non-deterministic; which in turn means that people such as Penrose who look to QM to provide space for free will in an otherwise deterministic universe must be barking up the wrong tree. This is not to say that the universe is necessarily deterministic; merely that you can't use QM to prove that it isn't. The much-derided "God of the Gaps" doesn't become any more viable if you transform him into the "God of the Very Little Gaps". In particular, the existence of a Bohm interpretation - however ugly, cumbersome, dislikeable, undesirable it may be - surely implies that quantum mechanics is not *inherently* non-deterministic; which in turn means that people such as Penrose who look to QM to provide space for free will in an otherwise deterministic universe must be barking up the wrong tree.

This is not to say that the universe is necessarily deterministic; merely that you can’t use QM to prove that it isn’t. The much-derided “God of the Gaps” doesn’t become any more viable if you transform him into the “God of the Very Little Gaps”.

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